The University of California San Diego’ is preparing to begin construction of a 2,400-bed residential village and a large student union that will become the social center of campus.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that together, the projects will cost nearly $1 billion. The university hopes the new facilities will meet a big demand for housing and create a central gathering spot at a school whose enrollment could rise by 7,000 over the next decade. The school now has almost 43,000 students.
The new housing village — to be known as Ridge Walk North Living and Learning Neighborhood — will be built on the site of low-rise apartments that have served the university since the mid-1970s.
In addition to housing, Ridge Walk North will provide teaching and administrative space for Thurgood Marshall College, the School of Global Policy and Strategy, and the Department of Economics. The complex will have four buildings, the largest of which will be 18 stories.
The student union, Triton Center, will cost about $428 million to build and will provide the university with space for such things as student health, academic resources, an alumni and welcome center, and a 500-person event space.
The complex will be a brief walk from the university’s emerging “front door,” which is composed of a Blue Line trolley station, the Design and Innovation Building, Epstein Family Amphitheater, and Pepper Canyon West, a 1,300-bed residential center that’s now under construction.
